This invention relates generally to washing machines, and, more particularly, to baskets for washing machines.
Washing machines typically include a cabinet that houses an outer tub for containing wash and rinse water, a perforated clothes basket within the tub, and an agitator within the basket. A drive and motor assembly is mounted underneath the stationary outer tub to rotate the clothes basket and the agitator relative to one another, and a pump assembly pumps water from the tub to a drain to execute a wash cycle. Conventionally, the basket is spun at appropriate times in the wash cycle to extract water and wash fluids from clothes.
In an effort to improve water extraction from the basket and to improve water penetration through clothes, at least one known basket includes a plurality of protrusions formed on an inner peripheral wall of the basket and extending in a vertical direction. The protrusions have an arcuate cross section forming a ridge projecting toward the center of the basket, and a plurality of grooves are formed in the basket sidewall in between adjacent protrusions. The grooves include a plurality of hydroextracting apertures therein. Such a basket is intended to reduce a force that radially outer clothes are pressed against the peripheral wall of the basket. See, for example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,202,187.
While the protrusions in such a basket are of some benefit in reducing cycle wash times by improving water extraction from clothes, the protrusions can be problematic from a manufacturing perspective. Aside from complicating mold designs from producing the baskets, the protrusions can create undesirable stress distributions in the basket as the basket is spun, and the stress distributions can be compounded by heavy wash loads and unbalanced loads in the basket. Overstressing the basket can lead to impaired washing performance and reduced longevity of the basket, while an overly reinforced basket results in added material costs and inefficient manufacturing operations.